Elixir Notes: Modules

Intro

A module is a collection of functions that can be used to organize your code in a manner similar to namespacing.

Modules are defined in Elixir with the defmodule keyword.

# Define a module

defmodule MyModule do
  # Contents
end

# Define a nested helpers module

defmodule MyModule.Helpers do
  # Contents
end

# Define module attributes

defmodule MyModule do
  @some_attribute "some attribute value"
  # Contents
end

Considerations

• Modules must start with an uppercase [A-Z]
• CamelCase is the formatting convention used for module naming.
• Modules can contain upper/lower case [a-zA-Z] , _ underscore and the dot . characters.
• The . character signifies module hierarchy
• The . character is a syntastic convenience. After compilation there is no relation between MyModule and MyModule.Helpers
• Module attributes are compile time constants. The can also be registered and queried at runtime.